Three questions that keep coming up in our AX lectures

Over the past year we've delivered enterprise AI-transition (AX) lectures at CERAGEM, Kurly, Dong-A ST, and the National Health Insurance Service. Different industries, different sizes, but the questions that came up after each session converged on three things.

The first is, "Should we just build a chatbot?" There's a trap in that question. Building HeySeorak taught us that what a foreign traveler needs isn't one more chatbot repeating information, it's a conversion design that keeps them from dropping off at the door and gets them to an actual order. Before adding a tool, you have to see where the drop-off happens.

The second is, "We don't have data, how do we even start with AI?" mindtouch didn't start with data either. Both the non-face-to-face mental-health app pilot we ran with the city of Sokcho in 2021 and the HeySeorak beta running now started small and built the data ourselves as we went. Data isn't something you wait to have ready; it accumulates once you run a small pilot.

The third is, "We don't have a dedicated team for this." I've run three ventures by connecting planning, building, and operating myself, end to end. Not having a dedicated team isn't a reason you can't start. If anything, it's a reason to start smaller.

What we actually want to hand over in an AX lecture isn't how to use a specific tool. It's a way of thinking about these three questions, and that way of thinking came from building and running real services in the field, not from a classroom.